Christ, my hope, has risen – Alleluia !!

April 25th, 2019

How wonderful that the Church allows us to extend our Easter joy into the week following Easter Sunday making it the Easter Octave. And so we, with great joy, can sing the Gloria all through this week…

…and we can also sing the Easter Sequence – Victimae Paschali.

Even though there are various versions of this now in existence, let’s look at the original chant – its mystical melody weaves its way up and down carrying the text in a joyous, almost playful way – in fact, this melody has the compass of an octave and a fourth – generally atypical of chant melodies.

After our journey through Lent whose music is often very reflective, introspective with a somewhat transparent quality – it’s almost like a mirror we hold up and see ourselves in it – the Church gives us this beautiful chant as a real treasure to help us bask in the mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus.

Note how the melody dives down at the words ‘tell us Mary, what did you see’ – almost like we are personally asking her what she saw – we know very well what she saw, but it’s almost akin to an amazing event being retold time and time again amongst friends – she then excitedly responds and recounts her experiences of that Easter morning when she came to Jesus’ tomb…and the melody surges and reaches its apex once again at the text ‘Scimus Christum surrexisse’: truly we know Christ has risen – it’s like we all join with her in an exclamation of our unwavering faith in the Risen Christ.

Wishing all of you the blessings of this Easter season !!

Jacinta